A company issued a company credit card to an employee for business purposes only. Of course the employee uses the card for personal use. Once management finds out,the employee is fired immediately. The company has a policy manual that states if charges are made on the credit card for personal use then the recourse is the restitution is taken out of future paychecks. The company did not follow its own policy by firing the employee immediately.

The penal code for credit card abuse states "with knowledge that the card. . . . has not been issued to him and not used with the effective consent of the cardholder. Here the card was given to him by the company. Is this "issued"?

Becuase of the policy manual is this a civil problem for the company to pursue?

Is this credit card abuse, theft, or not my problem?

If the card was issued under the name of the employee, then it is not your problem.

It's still theft.

I suppose the employee could claim a mistake of fact as to his knowledge, but I would think the company was the cardholder to whom or for whose benefit the card was issued (by the lender). See 32.21(a)(1). Harrell, 852 S.W.2d at 523. That the company may have subsequently authorized limited use by the employee was not an issuance. Presumably you can also prove the intent to obtain a benefit fraudulently (i.e., in clear violation of the limits or permissible purposes communicated by the company). I would also operate on the theory that no consent was given for the particular use made.